Speak My Language
by Graphite Eyes
Summary: Soul doesn't know how to tell Kid and Liz that he understands everything they're saying when they start to argue in Italian. He didn't really care either until they started bringing up his name before every fallout. /Soki


**Tumblr prompt by: mo** **torcycledean**

I had learned Italian years beforehand. My mother had forced me to sit through a three month, three hour every night entirely immersive class on it over not one, _but two_ of my treasured summer vacations when I was a kid. It came in handy on occasion when Maka and I were sent to deal with pre-kishins in Italy, but otherwise, I had never mentioned it to anyone else. I'd never had a reason to.

It wasn't like I was fluent, but the language had stuck around in my head, fairly easy to remember due to its similarities with the language I was taught primarily in school: Spanish.

Over the course of our missions together, I had accumulated a few friends from Italy, calling them and keeping up with the language to assure that I wouldn't forget it. I hate sounding like a tourist when we end up there.

It had been three weeks since Death the Kid, Liz, and Patty had returned from their diplomatic stationing in Italy. They had been gone for four months, completely immersed in the culture and communicating mainly by means of Italian as they discussed whatever business Lord Death had sent them there for.

Which really does explain why every time they start to get exasperated with each other-a common occurance, really-they had recently begun to dissolve into Italian, thinking that they were the only ones who could understand each other.

I had no idea how to tell them that I could understand everything they were saying.

Maka kept looking at me for a translation of their banter, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that their arguments had recently shifted from the norm. Usually Kid and his weapon's relationship was based strongly off of Liz's aggravation of Kid's incessant need for symmetry. I honestly didn't have the heart, or the words, to tell her that the arguing had shifted to a different topic.

One that I was becoming increasingly aware involved my name and a lot of controlled shouting.

We stood in an empty classroom of the DWMA waiting for Professor Stein to come brief us on the next mission that our mishmash group of three meisters and their weapons would be taking on. Blackstar was trying to show off some new exercise that he had perfected to Tsubaki and Liz was snapping something at Kid that everyone else had given up on trying to translate weeks ago.

Maka raised her eyebrow in their direction and glanced back at me, the question silent in her eyes, but I still didn't have an answer for her. I shrugged, giving a haphazard response of, "Yanno, the usual," pretending that I wasn't taking in every word they said.

" _La vuoi smettere di tirare in ballo Soul?!_ " My ears snapped to attention at the low growl of my name from Kid to Liz. Granted, it seemed that recently my attention was drawn by anything Kid said in their (supposedly) secret language.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Liz sit back in her seat, arms crossed. A small smirk tugged at her mouth as she watched her meister, clearly seeming to have won their argument (Patty's giggle and sticking her tongue out at the reaper only clarified that point), but they had been talking too fast for me to have picked up the full gist of what had been discussed.

Kid's cheeks lit up, turning a pale shade of pink as he held her gaze. He looked furious and I was beginning to fully formulate an idea of what had gone down in Italy to bring this kind of tension between Kid and Liz.

Liz leaned in closer to her meister, elbows propping themselves onto her knees as she said something to Kid that I just wasn't close enough to hear and god it almost killed me how much I wanted to know what she was saying.

.

We weren't leaving for Toronto, the next mission of ours, for another week, which gave me plenty of time during training periods to be tortured by the vague, hushed, taut exchanges between Liz and Kid.

Everything would be going fine, training would be running smoothly and efficiently, until Liz would mutter something under her breath that was only meant for Kid's ears. Agitated, Kid would lose their resonance.

While on a lunch break, I picked up words and bits, here or there of their sniping that I could translate. Most of it was Liz complaining about the extra training we had been doing and it's effect on the state of her nails. I rolled my eyes, slapping away Maka's hand from stealing one of the fries off my plate.

I wasn't that distracted.

Then, my attention snapped back to the conversation between Liz and Kid.

" _That's not my fault…" "You're an ass…"_ I translated the pieces in my head, missing a sentence in between the two fragments.

Liz was leaning back in her seat, filing her nails. She wasn't looking Kid in the eye, staring intently at the work she was doing, but whatever she had last said must have been rather insulting if the smirk the was plastered on her face was any indication.

Kid crossed his arms, sighed, then exclaimed simply, " _Fuck you."_

Liz's lips pressed together and he had clearly struck a cord. I watched Maka's head swivel down towards their end of the table. She glanced at me and I could tell that Liz's soul must have flared with much stronger emotion than her expression suggested.

Liz didn't make any moves. Neither did Kid. He would have felt her soul and known that if she was truly angry, she could do some damage. The two sat, wordless. Even Patty didn't have anything to contribute to the conversation, having finished her lunch and been interjecting periodically in english.

The tension didn't lift from the table until the three stood and wandered out of the dining hall, stating that they were done training for the day.

"You haven't said a word throughout all of lunch, Soul," Maka had leaned over towards me and was speaking softly. "You had to of caught onto _some_ of what just happened."

I shrugged, downing another slice of pizza. "There was just a lot of swearing at each other," I told her, making sure that Blackstar and Tsubaki couldn't hear me. "Also complaining. Liz loves complaining."

Maka frowned, eyeing the direction that the three had gone critically. "I hope everything is okay."

"Yeah," I replied.

.

Ending up alone in a room with Kid and Liz had been the farthest thing from my goal. Maka was looking for some book in the library and Patty was… I admit. I had no idea where Patty had run off to.

Three more days had gone by and while their sniping had begun to die off, Liz still insisted on talking to Kid in Italian. Today's topic seemed to be about how much she disliked a classmate of theirs.

I sat awkwardly across from them, staring down at a textbook and pretending that I wasn't listening to everything they were saying.

" _She's always yelling at Patty,"_ Liz huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. " _And Sid keeps intervening when I try to tell her off. It's ridiculous."_

Kid shrugged, " _You do tend to go overboard when it comes to things like this. He probably just doesn't want you to beat her up."_

" _But I_ want _to beat her up,"_ Liz told him.

A tight smile tugged at Kid's lips as he snapped, " _Well, we can't all get what we want."_

Liz's lips pressed into a thin line as she stared at him, incredulously. Her jaw clenched and she was looking at him as if he had just slapped her in the face.

He, on the other hand, looked agitated, but not to the same proportion as his weapon.

I suddenly felt like I was intruding. What Liz and Kid felt the need to talk about in a foreign language was none of my business and over the weeks I still had no idea how to tell them that I knew everything they were saying.

" _This,"_ Liz's voice was hard, " _is why we've been having such a hard time resonating. You won't let it go and you also don't have…"_

Her speech sped up and she used words I'd never heard before but was certain were not PG and I couldn't keep up with her.

My name. I definitely heard my name fall from Liz's mouth again, her tone sharp. They had risen from their seats at some point and were shouting. I definitely heard her exclaim, " _Grow a pair!_ " At some point but I'd lost track of the conversation long before that.

I couldn't take it anymore. The two were driving me crazy and before I could stop myself, the words tumbled out of my mouth.

" _Would you two chill the fuck down?"_

It proved to be incredibly effective. The weapon and meister's mouths snapped closed and their heads swiveled in my direction, lips parted in surprise. None of us moved and I realized that their shock was not emanating from the fact that I had risen my voice-even though I generally attempt to remain level headed and overall impassive around them. No, the reason that they were watching me with such utter horror registered on their faces was because I had not spoken in english. My outburst had been in Italian, proper fucking accent and all.

There was no going back now. I had gotten myself into this mess and now I had to somehow recover.

Squaring my shoulders, I rose to stand, stepping quietly closer to the two of them. I continued, now speaking intentionally in what they had thought to be their secret tongue, " _I've been listening to you two complain and argue for almost a month now. What is your problem_?"

Liz's eyes lit up and I couldn't tell the emotion that they held, just that whatever it was, it was strong. Kid's cheeks tinted pink and took a step back, away from me.

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose as I spoke again, this time in english. "Okay. Who turned down who?"

"When did you learn Italian?" Liz deflected the question.

"Years ago," I told them, "Why did you think Maka and I always picked missions that went to Italy?"

She frowned. "Maybe because you liked the scenery. We never paid too much attention to what you did," she said, but then her jaw set and her head swiveled to allow her to sneer at Kid, "Or, well, I never did."

"Ah," I nodded and made a gesture between the two of them. "So he turned you down."

Liz cocked a hip. I could see tension running through her body. When she spoke, she pushed out her chin to look down at me. "I don't want to talk about it."

"It didn't sound like that for the last month," I retorted.

She crossed her arms and stared over at Kid with fury in the set of her jaw. Liz didn't say anything at first. She just stared at him, unwavering until she finally jerked her chin in my direction, asking, "So, Kid. Are you going to tell him?"

I was almost stupid enough to ask what she was referring to. Almost.

But the problem was that I had spent a month listening to them bicker. Even though I couldn't keep up with some of the things that the two would snap at each other over, I had still heard enough to know exactly what Liz was referring to. I had had my suspicions for the last two weeks what the root of their vehemence towards each other was, but this simply confirmed it.

When I looked at Kid, cornered by mine and Liz's stares, he was bright red. His lips were pressed tightly together, his hands shoved into his pockets. Kid's hair had fallen into his face, black and white stripes covering one of his eyes, but he didn't move to correct it.

Kid was staring at Liz in horror and I could see the silent conversation going on between the two of them.

"You have a huge crush on me," I interjected into their silence, hating myself for stealing the true secret that the two were trying to keep by speaking in a different language.

As hurt and upset as Liz was by the rejection Kid had given to her, she still respected him enough to keep his secret. She was loyal to a fault and I respected Liz for that. Both of us would put our meisters before ourselves, even if they had hurt us.

Kid's teeth clenched, eyebrows knitting together as he watched me for anything that could tell him how I felt about that fact. Kid liked me. And not just as a friend; Kid _liked_ me and he was waiting to find out if I reciprocated.

It wasn't a predicament I found myself in often. To be entirely honest, I had no idea how to respond-especially with Liz's eyes darting between the two of us.

"Why didn't you tell us you could understand?" Kid spoke slowly, quietly.

"I didn't know how at first and then I didn't want to sound like I was eavesdropping," I told him, shifting my weight awkwardly. "But, I guess I kind of was."

Liz reached down and scooped up her bag from the armchair she had been sitting in. "I'll take that as my cue to leave," she said before storming off.

I waited a few seconds for the sound of Liz walking to fade out, until it was just me and Kid standing a few feet away from each other. His face was still pink and his hands shifted uncomfortably.

Neither of us had a clue of what to say to the other, so we just stood, watching each other. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Occasionally, Kid's gaze would shift, glancing down across my body, analyzing.

Finally, I said, "I'm sorry for invading your privacy."

Kid's eyebrows shot up and the blush that dusted his cheeks spread down to his neck and I was embarrassed to admit that my eyes followed it before I snapped them back up.

"I'm sorry we assumed no one else spoke the language," Kid said cooly, waving away my concern.

I stepped towards him, hands shoved into my pockets. " _What was your favorite part of Italy_?" I asked, unsure of why I had switched back to Italian.

Kid paused, contemplating, then smiled. " _We stopped along the river Po one day. It was amazing_."

Oh. That's why I had switched. Kid's voice curled around the language comfortably, as if he had spoken it his entire life. It was amazing to listen to when he wasn't shouting. (Though, I certainly had no problem listening to him swear.)

" _Why did you turn down Liz_?" I hadn't even realized I'd asked the question until Kid was stumbling back, sputtering for a response.

His hair fell back into his face and this time he reached up to rake it out of his way as he told me, " _You just said the answer a minute ago. Why are you asking me_?"

I didn't have an answer to that. I didn't know why I'd asked him a question I was already well aware of the answer to. Kid leaned back against the wall and it was his turn to watch me sputter for some kind of an reply.

" _I'm sorry if it's uncomfortable for you to know that I like you,_ " Kid said, staring at the floor. He was clearly embarrassed that I had found out about it, especially like this.

Kid didn't deserve that. Something bubbled up in my chest as he stood, dejected.

" _I understand if you'd rather I keep my distance._ " The reaper still wouldn't just look at me. " _It's gotta be weird knowing_."

I sighed, taking another step towards him to try to get Kid to look up. " _I figured out that one of you liked me. I just didn't know which one. If I was going to be uncomfortable, it would have happened like two weeks ago._ "

Kid glanced up for a second, faltering when he met my gaze before looking away again. He laughed suddenly, without humor. " _You probably would have preferred it have been Liz._ "

But I crossed the room in a second, batting his hands out of my way, and suddenly my lips we pressed against his.

Kid's eyes shot open wide for a second, confused. Mine were squeezed shut, my hands wrapped around his neck, my body pressing his up against the wall.

We lit up like fire.

Kid's hands found my waist and he turned his head up to meet my lips as they slanted down against his. My heart turned over in my chest as my fingers laced their way into his hair and it was soft. My mind went blank. I couldn't think in sentences, my brain was only processing the feelings and sensations of kissing Kid.

His body was taut against my own, his chest arching against me. When I tugged at Kid's hair he gasped against my mouth and my brain could only register longing, excitement, need. My kiss was frantic. I didn't just want to kiss him, I needed it.

I reached, grabbing another fistful of his hair and Kid moaned into my lips.

I needed more. My hand found its way to the button of his suit and undid it. I pushed the article off his shoulders and Kid grabbed a handful of my shirt to pull me closer, closer, closer.

My lips trailed away from his, moving to his neck, his jaw. Kid groaned, low and predatory and my brain stopped working altogether. I bit at his jawline and felt his hands pulling at my hair.

" _We probably shouldn't be doing this here_ ," Kid's voice rang through my ears, short and breathy, and a shudder ran through my body. Kid speaking Italian was probably the hottest thing I'd ever heard.

I bit at him again and Kid made sound low in his throat and I was certain that he could feel that it was more than just my leg pressed against his own. His hands moved down to my neck and I watched as his eyelids drooped closed from the nips that I was making at his neck before moving to kiss him again.

This kiss was slow. I pressed myself into him and ran my hands down his sides to hook my thumbs in the waistband of his pants.

When we finally, reluctantly pulled away from each other, it was because a door down the hall had opened and closed. Kid stared at me, amber eyes wide and lips still parted as he straightened his suit jacket.

Maka walked in, letting out a sigh when she spotted me across the room. "Hey, come on," she called, "Can you come help me with this?"

"One sec," I called back.

Kid was still breathing heavy and my eyes kept flicking down to his lips. I could feel his presence like a gravitational pull, desperate to reconnect, but my meister needed me.

" _Does this mean you like me too?"_ Kid asked.

A smirk tugged at the corners of my mouth. My gaze fell, soaking in every detail of Kid and I replied, " _Yeah. Yeah, it does._ "


End file.
